Compensation of own voice occlusion

Abstract

A method of equalising sound in a headset comprising an internal microphone configured to generate a first audio signal, an external microphone configured to generate a second audio signal, a speaker, and one or more processors coupled between the speaker, the external microphone, and the internal microphone, the method comprising: while the headset is worn by a user: determining a first audio transfer function between the first audio signal and the second audio signal in the presence of sound at the external microphone; and determining a second audio transfer function between a speaker input signal and the first audio signal with the speaker being driven by the speaker input signal; determining an electrical transfer function of the one or more processors; determining a closed-ear transfer function based on the first audio transfer function, the second audio transfer function and the electrical transfer function; and equalising the first audio signal based on a comparison between the closed-ear transfer function and an open-ear transfer function to generate an equalised first audio signal.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of equalising sound in a headset comprising an internal microphone configured to generate a first audio signal, an external microphone configured to generate a second audio signal, a speaker, and one or more processors coupled between the speaker, the external microphone, and the internal microphone, the method comprising:
 determining a first audio transfer function between the first audio signal and the second audio signal while the headset is worn by the user and the user is speaking; and 
 equalising the first audio signal based on the first audio transfer function. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 on determining that the user is speaking, outputting the voice equalised first audio signal to the speaker. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining that the one or more processors is implementing active noise cancellation (ANC); and 
 adjusting the equalisation to account for the ANC. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 requesting that the user speak a phoneme balanced sentence or phrase, 
 wherein the first audio transfer function is determined while the user is speaking the phoneme balanced sentence. 
 
     
     
       5. An apparatus, comprising:
 a headset comprising:
 an internal microphone configured to generate a first audio signal; 
 an external microphone configured to generate a second audio signal; 
 a speaker; and 
 
 one or more processors configured to:
 determine a first audio transfer function between the first audio signal and the second audio signal while the headset is worn by the user and the user is speaking; and 
 
 equalise the first audio signal based on the difference between the open-ear transfer function and the closed-ear transfer function to generate an equalised first audio signal. 
 
     
     
       6. The apparatus of  claim 5 , wherein the one or more processors configured to:
 on determining that the user is speaking, output the equalised first audio signal to the speaker. 
 
     
     
       7. The apparatus of  claim 5 , wherein the one or more processors configured to:
 determine that the one or more processors is implementing active noise cancellation (ANC); and 
 adjust the equalisation to account for the ANC. 
 
     
     
       8. The apparatus of  claim 5 , wherein the one or more processors configured to:
 request that the user speak a phoneme balanced sentence or phrase, 
 wherein the first audio transfer function is determined while the user is speaking the phoneme balanced sentence. 
 
     
     
       9. The apparatus of  claim 5 , wherein the headset comprises one or more of the one or more processors. 
     
     
       10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out a method of equalising sound in a headset comprising an internal microphone configured to generate a first audio signal, an external microphone configured to generate a second audio signal, a speaker, and one or more processors coupled between the speaker, the external microphone, and the internal microphone, the method comprising:
 determining a first audio transfer function between the first audio signal and the second audio signal while the headset is worn by the user and the user is speaking; and 
 equalising the first audio signal based on the first audio transfer function.